Sakae Sushi

A Singaporean sushi chain with branches across Asia. It serves average but somewhat consistent food at cheap prices. A place for quantity and not quality for sure.

The plates on the conveyor belt always look a bit dodgy (they never mark how long the stuff has been on the belt) but you can order from the big menu. The day we went we were delighted to find out that a all-you-can-eat deal was on, and for RMB98/person you can order from a list of 60 different items (at least) in 90 minute's time.

I got some sashimi - salmon, seabream, tuna, and cuttlefish to start. Each portion has 3 pieces. They were like the regular supermarket sushi variety.

The vegetable tempura. There were 3 pieces - mushroom, carrot, and green pepper. The batter was too thick, greasy and sloppy. Below par.

The mini-California rolls, egg maki and salmon maki. Again average, not particularly tasty or nasty.

The egg sushi (my favourite) and the crab salad gunkan. Tasted fine to me.

I forgot what this was called but it was the house special. Some kind of white fish in a thick yellow sauce, fried in butter. Tasted better than it looked. I had to blot the oil on a napkin though (but then i do that a lot anyways).

The teppan salmon - oddly in a sauce. I wished they would just fry and fish and serve it pronto but no they had it soaked in some sauce and rearrange the skin instead. Totally unnecessary.

More success with the grilled eel. I loved the thick sweet sauce but the fish was a little too fishy.

The grilled mackerel was firm and meaty. We ended up ordering an extra portion.

I couldn't resist the urge to have some udon so here we are: the vegetable udon noodles. Nothing special but it filled the hole.

We got second orders of more sashimi, sushi and California rolls - we ate like 2 truckers. Not Nobu quality but a very satisfying meal overall. We will definitely go back when we feel like binging again.

Sakae Sushi

7/F, Parkson Shopping Centre, 918 HuaiHai Central Rd (near Shaanxi Rd, Shanghai. Tel: 6415-9726

Dan's Old Farm House

Two words to sum this place up: meat fest. If you ever feel like simple food with meat and veg in gravy, this is the place to be. Dan, the Danish owner, has a menu with German and Scandinavian dishes in big portions.

As usual, we ordered the mama's potato salad with Vienna sausages (RMB68) to share, saving room for the huge main courses. There were bits of gherkins in the salad and it was all tasty - until we dug towards the middle of the salad......it was almost frozen! It was the first time it happened of all our visits. Can one freeze potato salad? Or maybe it was all pre-made and chilled to the bone? So many questions.
I think U decided to play safe and ordered the grilled ribeye steak with pan-fried potatoes and vegetables (RMB125). It was simple and no real surprises.

My husband ordered the sausage plate (RMB105). There were 2 Thüringer, 2 Nürnberger and 2 Danish sausages, served with mashed spuds, fried onions and sauerkraut. Our favourite was the Thüringer sausages - had all the right spices and flavours.

My crispy grilled pork knuckle (RMB125). I never ate the skin, I know, some will it's sacrilegious. Just don't like skin. Period. Anyway it sounded crispy enough when I sliced my knife through. The meat was firm and salted - not quite so delicate as the version at Chesa - but I loved it.

I had too many drinks to remember how much the bill was. The prices I have on here are the Sherpa's delivery prices, which are more expensive than the prices on the menu (WHY???? Since you pay RMB15 for delivery service anyway?).

Dan's Old Farm House

318 Julu Rd (near MaoMing Rd), Shanghai. Tel: 6258-5560

Moon River Diner

An American diner with all the comfort food such as burgers, sandwiches, pot-pies, all day breakfasts, and all other goodies on the extensive menu.

My guilty pleasure: the Oreo shake (RMB35) made with thick and creamy ice cream. It was not as thick as a Dairy Queen Blizzard but just as good.

I also got the chili cheese fries(RMB25), another favourite of mine. There were chunks of meat in the chili. Yum. One of these days I will have to try the chili cheese dog. The thing is I can never NOT order the burger. Dilemma!

My friend C got the tomato soup and BLT (RMB40). The soup was rich and zingy and the sandwich fresh. A light and refreshing choice.

I wanted the full monty and went for the southwest burger (RMB55). It was basically the classic diner burger with roasted spicy peppers on top. I opted for the sour cream potato salad on the side and to my surprise it actually tasted good with the egg and the onions in it. (I never expect too much from side dishes...usually you get some blah coleslaw or salad.)

R got the classic burger with small green salad. The bill came to RMB210 with the 10% Enjoy Card discount.

Moon River Diner (4 locations in Shanghai)

Hong Mei Food Street, 3338 Hong Mei Rd., Shanghai. Tel: 5169-9156

Fish anyone?

I saw these right before Chinese New Year at the market as well the previous but had no idea what they were. This year I got photographic evidence and showed my Aiyi.

Look at the size of them! Absolutely humongous!

And guess that they are.

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Roll drums.......

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They are eels! They are only available in winter because of the way they are dried and prepared. It's a very popular item for Chinese New Year because the pronunciation of the word fish is auspicious. It sounds the same as plenty and abundance. Each one of them would cost between RMB150 to RMB200 depending on the size. My Aiyi said it's very nice - I will take her word for it.

A Day at the Museum

Er, I think it's trying to tell us that it's now OK to bang foreigners?

Stanley's travel blog

As my brother Henry is still stranded in Beijing I got to travel with my parents to Hong Kong! It was my first time back there since we moved to Shanghai in 2005 and I was pretty stoked about it. Then of course there was all the red pockets I got to collect too!

My brother is the globe trotter in the family but I am quite a seasoned traveller too.

Look at me whizzing my way around on the subway. People were not too friendly at all on the train though, perhaps they were terrorized by the presence of a brown bear? The only people who smiled at me were the small children.
Then it was friday afternoon piss-up session in good old Wanchai. Loved my lychee martini. At least people there didn't judge me, but Wanchai is full of freaks, right? Or just old and over-weight dudes with bad comb-overs? In any case I think I was the most handsome (not to mention well-dressed) chap there. Too bad I didn't get to check out the hubba hubba at the strip joint across the street this time (I bet they'd let me in too as long as I had the money).

Dragon Air

Day 8. Never took pictures of airline food before but I thought I would write about the meal which concluded the Hong Kong Food Odyssey. The flights back to Shanghai were all pretty full and we somehow ended up being on standby (don't ask). The good news is we managed to get on and I even got bumped up to first class.

I picked the western menu, by JW's California at the Marriott. The starter was seared scallops with honey mustard vinaigrette. It didn't look bad but I thought the scallops might be fake? Is there such a thing as imitation scallop (like those orange Japanese "crab sticks") I wonder?

My main course came swimming in the soy and balsamic butter, thank god it wasn't bumpy. The smoked beef fillet was dry as expected, and the kipfler potato and roasted endive were the tastier options on the plate.

I don't think I'll be paying to fly Dragon Air first class now that I've tried it. I guess you can say the food is marginally better. Here's the business lunch I had on my way out:
There was veal salad and some cooked-to-death prawns and broccoli with beans from tin. Once again the Haagen Dazs ice cream saved the day.

Under Bridge Spicy Crab 橋底辣蟹

Day 7. Our Hong Kong Food Odyssey was almost coming to an end. Instead of Pierre we decided to come to Under Bridge Spicy Crab instead with our dear friends K and N.

Under Bridge specialises in typhoon-shelter styled seafood - which a lot of chili and garlic are used. Like a lot of the seafood joints in town the front of this small place was lined up with fish tanks. On the floor near the entrance were boxes of live mud crab - apparently from Vietnam. Some of them were almost as big as the size of a dinner plate!

We ordered 2 medium-size crabs and they were $HK580 each. We were asked our preference on the chili scale and we thought we'd be conservative and picked medium. It was still rather spicy, and we are not wimps when it comes to chili (we ARE the vindaloo connoisseurs). Next time we will go with the low level because we the spiciness could overpower the crab. The crab meat was sweet and succulent and unusually fleshy. Even my husband was impressive and he doesn't like crab normally. He said when he saw the pile of chili he thought it was a bit OTT. Then he tried some and it was very very tasty and he even mixed it with his fried rice. Cunning but trots inducing. (!)
We all know how annoyingly chunky a Blackberry is - and our medium-size crab claw won the competition hands down in this case! Can't imagine how large a big crab would get.

We also ordered deep fried salt and pepper mantis shrimps (ugly as sin but quite meaty), clams with chili and black bean sauce, stir-fried scallops and broccoli, and fried rice. The crabs were so good I actually FORGOT to take pics of the other dishes. Sorry. :)

The bill came to HK$1500 for 4, with quite a few beers. At first glance it seemed expensive but then considering the quantity of crab and seafood we had it was pretty good value. I think if we go often enough the prices for the crab would drop a little too.

Under Bridge Spicy Crab (4 locations in Causeway Bay)

G/F, 405 Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. Tel: 2893-1289

Sportful Garden Restaurant 陶源酒家

Day 7. I wasn't going to write about Sportful Garden as I thought it was just going to be another typical dim sum lunch. What made this visit extraordinary was unfortunately not because of the food but the appalling service. More on that later.

To be fair the dim sum quality was above average. I got to try new things also, as supposed to my regular favourite dishes because of my friends E and S. It's good to go to dim sum with more people for sure.

The pan-fried dumplings with crab meat and pork was freshly made and crispy. They weren't half as greasy as I thought they would be. I didn't really taste anything remotely like crab meat, though according to the menu hand-picked crab meat was used? In any case they were rather delicious.

The rice flour rolls with beef was mediocre. They suffered from the too-much-pastry-too-little-filling syndrome. And the lack of sauce (why just 2 drops?) didn't help neither.

The steamed prawn dumplings, on the other hand, were tasty and dainty looking.

E ordered the steamed shrimp meat and inkfish (??) rolls with seaweed, thinking that they would be like maki rolls. How wrong. She said she overlooked the keyword 'steamed'. We all thought the dish looked absolutely hideous. We sampled some anyway and they really didn't have a distinct taste, and to our surprise they didn't taste nearly as dreadful as they looked.

Luckily the steamed pea shoot and pork dumplings looked a lot more appetizing. They were truly enjoyable too.

The taro spring rolls were tasty - again they were freshly made and crispy.

To satisfy E's sweet tooth we got the glutinous rice dumplings with sesame paste stuffing. I didn't try any but she gave her approving verdict.

We also ordered a few other classic dim sum such as siu mai, beef balls and some steamed veg. They all came with above-average standards.

We spotted a BBQ-meat platter on the next table and decided to order one as well and that's when the saga began. The waitress came to us 30 mins after we placed the order to tell us that the meat platter on the next table was big and expensive (HK$200), and that we should consider ordering a smaller version (HK$88). We then asked her whether the cheaper version would come with the same combination of meat as the big one, and her answer was yes. We were glad that she was being helpful, until we saw the platter when it arrived. It had two unidentifiable items and 2 meats - not really what we were after. We inquired about the discrepancy but the waitress flipped right away. She said loudly that it was the 88-dollar version and we should have known. And she kept going on about the prices of the two different dishes. We tried to tell her that it wasn't the price we were worried about and hence we purposely asked her about the content of the dish. She didn't explain why she gave us the conflicting information earlier and instead she said flatly that she couldn't help us on that. Our chins dropped and before we had time to recover she snatched the plate off our table and mumbled something like she would cancel the order.

I think the bill came to around HK$300, including 10% service and 90% attitude.

Sportful Garden Restaurant

2/F, 188 Des Voeux Rd Central, Sheung Wan, Hong Kong. Tel: 2851-3381

Nobu

Day 6. A recent addition to the Hong Kong dining scene. We booked a week in advance and managed to get a table. The woman on the phone got on my nerves though when she went on about the dress code. Who would wear tank tops and shorts in February?

The restaurant is black and sleek and not very Japanese looking. The tables are way to close to each other though and again, kind of like seating in McDonald's if you get a table of two.

OK back to the food. We ordered a couple of starters to share and this is the sashimi salad with Matsuhisa dressing (HK$240). We got 7 pieces of tuna sashimi, which was rather generous if you ask me. They were exceedingly fresh and they were seared slightly. The dressing composed of sesame oil, soy and some other secret ingredients and it was very zingy and refreshing - it brought out the taste of the fish. Two thumbs up Mr. Matsuhisa!
Our other starter: tuna tataki with tosazu (HK$180). Why did it come in 7 pieces again? Made it very awkward to share between the 2 of us (and there were mostly couples there). The tuna was really juicy and the tosazu sauce added a delicate vinegar taste. I prefered the sashimi salad if I had to pick one between the two.

The Nobu style Wagyu dumpling (HK$195) was the only hot dish we ordered. They were OK but nothing to shout about. I guess at least you know it had Wagyu beef in them as supposed to some mystery meat. The pastry was nice and thin though.

The toro and spring onion maki (HK$180) and the spicy tuna maki (HK$85). Both were excellent! I never tasted seaweed so crisp before in my life. The rice and the fish were in top form and we polished them off in no time. I also 'accidentally' ate 4 of the toro rolls - sorry B! ;-)

We decided to order more rolls and picked the yellow tail and spring onion maki (HK$80). I think my marginal utility curve was starting to diminish and therefore they were not as satisfying as the other rolls. My sister B gorged them down pretty quickly though so I am sure they were good.
B also insisted on the sweet potato tempura and it was sadly a little disappointing. The potato was so hard it was difficult to eat. The tempura batter was very thin and actually stuck to the potato and not sloppy! How'd they do that?

We didn't have room for dessert. The damage for two came to HK$1200 - we were about to feel good on the fact that it was less than we thought. Then we spotted the bottle of Fiji water we got served at the beginning of the meal and that was HK$95!!! WTF?

Nobu

2/F, Intercontinental Hong Kong

18 Salisbury Road, TST, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel: 2313-2340

Fat Man Hot Pot

More on day 5. We decided to go to our friends K and N's pad to see their cats - rescued from Singapore a couple of months ago! This one is Jeega - he's permanently active and bouncy.

And this is the gentle and adorable Rabbell. He let me stroke him for an hour at least!

After 2 bottles of wine we all got a bit peckish and decided to go to the neighbourhood hotpot place. We liked the al fresco sitting and the friendly patrons. Oh and the $10 bottled beers as well of course. We ordered the Sichuan spicy soup base, and the clear broth as an insurance policy. It was a good call because the spicy one got spicier the more we had.

We ordered the usual dishes like beef, chicken, meat balls, and etc. The mushroom+pork balls were a hit. We were also particularly impressed with the vegetable combo.

The bill came to HK$295 and we must have had about 8 or 9 beers (large bottles!)all together? No wonder the food was so good!

Fat Man Hot Pot (The owner's name is "Man")

Cooked Food Market, Yue Wan Estate, Chai Wan, Hong Kong

India Palace

Day 5. India Palace was special because it served vegetarian food and it had an extensive dosa menu. On this visit we found out that it is now under new management and while dosas are still available there's a full curry menu too.

We ended up ordering three of these masala dosa. It's difficult to explain the texture of the dosa - made out of ground lentils and rice flour, it was not crunchy but more like a thin stiff (but soft) bread. There was a dollop of potato masala inside the dosa to go with it.

Without the big dosa menu and the different dosas to choose from, we thought we might as well order from the regular menu (the manager was also getting a little puxhy too). We got the fish tikka to start. The big chunks of boneless white fish was cooked just right the the spices were delicious. I love tandoori - just the smell of it makes my mouth water.

Lamb rogan josh. Pretty average with no distinctive flavours.

Our veg dish dal makhani. Again pretty average.

We were feeling healthy for the day and therefore another veg dish - aloo chana masala. It wasn't bad and was probably the best amongst the other dishes we ordered that day.

Chicken tikka masala. Again, pretty nondescript.

The nan bread was good. But then it's difficult to screw that up.

The food overall was mediocre. Don't think we will bother making a special trip to the dark side again next time. The meal for 4 with two or three beers each came to HK$760.

The places serves Carlsberg on tap but make sure you make it clear that you want draft otherwise you will get Carlsberg in cans.

India Palace

1/F, 19-21 Hankow Rd, TST, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel: 2736-6617